The Wharton Lab

Apodesmia Foerster, 1862: 259. Type species: Apodesmia taeniata Foerster, 1862 (monobasic and original designation).

Type locality of type species: Germany, Aachen? Type series in Museum fuer Naturkunde der Humboldt-Universitaet, Berlin. A lectotype is labeled within this series but I have not seen a formal (published) designation of a lectotype.

Apodesmia was originally included in the Opioidae by Foerster (1862) and has resided in the Opiinae ever since. Apodesmia was treated as a subgenus of Opius by Fischer (1972) and resurrected as a genus by van Achterberg (Van Achterberg 1997 ; Belokobylskij et al. 2003; Li et al. (2013)).

The type species, taeniata, was treated as a junior, subjective synonym of Opius rufipes Wesmael, 1835 by van Achterberg in Belokobylskij et al. 2003.

Only some of the species included in Opius (Apodemia) by Fischer (1972, 1977, 1987) belong in Apodesmia as defined in Li et al. (2013). For species formally transferred to Apodesmia sensu Li et al. (2013), see Van Achterberg (1997) and Belokobylskij et al. (2003).

Apodesmia was characterized by Foerster (1862) almost exclusively on the basis of wing venation, primarily the broad stigma, long second submarginal cell, and the m-cu cross-vein entering the first submarginal cell (Figs 1, 11). Fischer (1972) re-defined Apodesmia primarily on the basis of body sculpture (Figs 7-10). Li et al. (2013), on the other hand, emphasized the relative positions of the occipital and hypostomal carina, which meet or nearly so ventrally near the base of the mandible (Fig. 4) in Apodesmia sensu Li et al. (2013). In the type series of taeniata, the occipital and hypostomal carinae appear to converge ventrally and run very narrowly parallel to each other towards the mandible without actually meeting. Wharton and Norrbom (2013) described a species group of Opius s. l. with convergent occipital and hypostomal carinae that do not appear to be closely related to Apodesmia.

In addition to the unusual convergence ventrally of the hypostomal and occipital carinae, the type species of Apodesmia is characterized by the presence of a large pronope (dorsal median pit on the pronotum) (Fig. 7), the presence of a distinct mesoscutal midpit (Figs 7, 8), deeply impressed and usually sculptured notauli that are variable in length but usually confined to the anterior declivity (Figs 5, 7, 8), a deeply impressed precoxal sulcus that is usually sculptured (Fig. 5), though sometimes weakly so, a crenulate posterior margin of the mesopleuron (Fig. 5), an extensively sculptured propodeum and T1 (Fig. 10), absence of a dorsope on T1, an exposed labrum below a slightly protruding clypeus with a sharp ventral margin (Figs 2, 3), mandibles without basal tooth or lobe ventrally (Figs 2-4), and a relatively short, broad stigma with fore wing m-cu antefurcal (Figs 1, 11).

The images shown here are of Opius rufipes Wesmael, 1835 from the Stelfox Collection.

rufipes has been reared from a leaf-mining tephritid (Chevalier 1927) as well as other leafminers.

This page was assembled by Bob Wharton and Danielle Restuccia. It is part of a review of the genera of World Opiinae, conducted at Texas A&M University. We are particularly grateful to Xanthe Shirley, Andrew Ly, Patricia Mullins, Trent Hawkins, Lauren Ward, Cheryl Hyde, Karl Roeder, and Andrea Walker, who did nearly all of the imaging (together with Danielle) for this project. Matt Yoder and Istvan Miko provided guidance on databasing issues associated with our use of mx and HAO respectively. This project would not have been possible without the kindness of many curators at museums throughout the world who gave generously of their time to Bob Wharton and his students. In particular, I thank Henry Townes (deceased) and David Wahl (American Entomological Institute, Gainesville), Gordon Nishida (Bernice P. Bishop Museum, Honolulu), Norm Penny, and Bob Zuparko (California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco), Bill Mason (deceased), Mike Sharkey, Andrew Bennett, and Henri Goulet (Canadian National Collection, Ottawa), Paul Dessart (deceased) (Institut Royal des Sciences Naturelles de Belgique, Brussels), Marc De Meyer (Koninklijk Museum voor Midden-Afrika, Tervuren), Axel Bachmann (Museo Argentino de Ciencias Natureles, Buenos Aires), Eberhard Koenigsmann (deceased) and Frank Koch (Museum fuer Naturkunde der Humboldt-Universitaet, Berlin), J. Casevitz Weulersse and Claire Villemant (Museum National d’Historie Naturelle, Paris), James O’Connor (National Museum of Ireland, Dublin), Jenö Papp (National Museum of Natural History, Budapest), Kees van Achterberg (National Museum of Natural History, Leiden), Max Fischer, Herb Zettel, and Dominique Zimmermann (Naturhistorisches Museum, Wien), Per Persson and Lars-Åke Janzon (Naturhistoriska Riksmuseet, Stockholm), Ermenegildo Tremblay (Silvestri Collection, Portici), Erasmus Haeselbarth (Staatliche Naturwissenschaftliche Sammlungen Bayerns, Munich), Tom Huddleston and Gavin Broad (The Natural History Museum, London), Paul Marsh and Robert Kula (USDA Systematic Research Laboratory and US National Museum of Natural History, Washington, D. C.), Vladimir Tobias (deceased) and Sergey Belokobylskij (Zoological Institute, Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg), and Roy Danielsson (Zoological Institute, Department of Systematics, Lund) for facilitating loans and general assistance associated with examination of holotypes and other material in their care. This work was supported largely by NSF/PEET DEB 0328922 and 0949027, with REU supplements 0723663, 1026618, 1213790, and 1313933 (to Wharton). Page last updated June, 2015. The material on this page is freely available, but should be acknowledged if used elsewhere.

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant Numbers DEB 9300517, DEB (PEET) 9712543, DEB (PEET) 0328922 with REU supplements 0723663 and 1026618 and DEB 0949027 with REU supplements 1213790 and 1313933. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.